Men's College Soccer
Canisius College 1, Rider University 0
BUFFALO, NY-Canisius scored on a penalty kick with less than three minutes left in the game for a Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference victory over Rider Sunday afternoon.
"That's a tough one to take, considering we out-played them most of the game," said Rider head coach Russ Fager. "The PK was more than a questionable call, but it was called and there is nothing we can do about it. Their forward and our defender were running side-by-side. Because our defender is bigger their forward fell down and they called it."
Canisius (3-10-1, 3-3 MAAC) out-shot Rider (2-11-1, 1-3-1 MAAC) 19-13, including 6-4 in shots on goal.
"Our defense was great today," Fager said. "They (Canisius) had no way to get dangerous. They could not beat our defense no matter what they did. They couldn't find a way to get dangerous on us."
Sophomore Dan Friga (Clifton, N.J./Passaic County Tech) had six of Rider's shots, including three on goal.
Rider sophomore goalkeeper Matt Perrella (North Brunswick, N.J./N. Brunswick) made five saves. "Matt played well," Fager said. "He made a couple of saves and did a good enough job to win this game."
Rider had seven corner kicks to four for Canisius.
The Broncs lost 3-1 to Canisius last year in Lawrenceville and lost 3-0 at Canisius in 2008. Rider and Canisius have now met 15 times, with Rider winning eight, the last win coming in 2007.
Rider comes home to host Marist Friday night. "We need to get points," Fager said, regarding the MAAC standings. "We felt if we had gotten three points today (3 points for a win, 1 point for a tie) and then came home for a pair of home games we'd be in good shape for the playoffs."
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